LudumData

Nature Is Healing by KingOfSpill

[raw]
made by KingOfSpill for Ludum Dare 50 (JAM)

cover-image.png The year is 2075. An experiment gone wrong has created THE MOLD, and most of humanity has been wiped from the earth. You are one of the few survivors, trapped in an underground bunker with only a flamethrower. You must try to keep back THE MOLD. But eventually, it will kill you too.

The game is a top-down shooter where the only enemy is an ever growing mold. Fight to survive as long as you can in randomized levels.

Credits / Attributions:

Art, Programming, Design: KingOfSpill

Sounds:

  • Footsteps: https://freesound.org/people/Nox_Sound/sounds/530588/
  • Flamethrower: https://freesound.org/people/pugaeme/sounds/396890/
  • Hurt: https://freesound.org/people/bennychico11/sounds/80438/
  • Music: https://timbeek.itch.io/
  • Moss: https://freesound.org/people/Archos/sounds/433832/
  • Gas Can: https://freesound.org/people/jsburgh/sounds/235680/
  • Death Scream: https://freesound.org/people/TheSubber13/sounds/239900/
  • Gunshot: https://freesound.org/people/jeremysykes/sounds/344524/
  • Explosion: https://freesound.org/people/magnuswaker/sounds/523089/
  • Gas Can Clang: https://freesound.org/people/jasonLON/sounds/125404/

Art: - Logo Font: https://somepx.itch.io/humble-fonts-gold-ii - Slideshow images: - https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-doing-an-experiment-8326466/ - https://www.pexels.com/photo/photography-of-bricks-covered-with-moss-1089280/ - https://www.pexels.com/photo/abandoned-buildings-in-an-old-town-6494988/ - https://www.pexels.com/photo/streets-of-tokyo-at-night-11598394/ - https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-brown-coat-standing-on-gray-rocks-4888554/ - https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-black-jacket-and-pants-sitting-on-concrete-wall-4888469/

Link https://kingofspill.itch.io/nature-is-healing
Link https://kingofspill.itch.io/nature-is-healing
Link https://kingofspill.itch.io/nature-is-healing
Original URL https://ldjam.com/events/ludum-dare/50/nature-is-healing

Ratings

Overall 558th 3.618⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Fun 736th 3.342⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Innovation 606th 3.395⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Theme 71th 4.289⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Humor 945th 2.516⭐ 34🧑‍⚖️
Mood 110th 4.171⭐ 40🧑‍⚖️
Given 40🗳️ 61🗨️

Feedback

sivarde
04. Apr 2022 · 21:26 UTC
This game really creates a spooky vibe (this is a good thing) since you are in the dark and you know that the mold is slowly coming for you. The fog of war was a nice touch too!
Mooptychunk
05. Apr 2022 · 02:35 UTC
Lots of style. I love the way the mold looks as it spreads.
Danonino
05. Apr 2022 · 05:15 UTC
Starting cutscene was top notch gameplay was a bit lacking tho.
aneckdope
05. Apr 2022 · 06:32 UTC
Gameplay is a bit lacking, true, however you created a great atmosphere with music, limited vision and overall setting for the game, I am definitely looking forward to developing this concept, because honestly I enjoyed it quite a bit!
Dean Isseyegh
05. Apr 2022 · 12:38 UTC
Really awesome vibes. Opening cutscene was awesome. Idea was cool. Shooting the flamethrower was super satisfying. Wish I could have used the flamethrower on some more things like enemies, but overall an awesome game that fits the theme really well.
arhiDavid
05. Apr 2022 · 18:39 UTC
Love the style.
I survived 1:20
Sam Minh
05. Apr 2022 · 18:42 UTC
The mood is pretty well set up with the sound and the fog of war. The creeping plants were very well done. The effect that it spreads around corners and that little spots grow very fast is really cool.
I wish I had more fuel and the fire would be more destructive. It felt very satisfying to blast away and burn the plants down. So facilitating that gameplay more would make it more satisfying to play.
It would have been better if the movement speed of the player was always set to the sprinting speed without an additional sprinting button. There was no reason to not sprint.
🎤 KingOfSpill
05. Apr 2022 · 18:54 UTC
@sam-minh That's a really great point about the sprinting. I was kind of flipping back and forth about whether I should just remove it. Sounds like a good change for v2.
Kaljal
05. Apr 2022 · 19:57 UTC
It's hard and has spooky vibes I like it, good game :slight_smile:
Benjamin Humes
06. Apr 2022 · 00:16 UTC
Very good atmosphere. Maybe you could add some more purpose to the game, like gathering supplies from the bunker as the mold fills it and then closing yourself into a lower level until the mold breaks through that one and that's the next level and you keep going until you run out of supplies.
🎤 KingOfSpill
06. Apr 2022 · 00:25 UTC
@benjamin-humes Thanks for the feedback! If I continue post-jam I'm thinking I might make it a bit more of a linear game rather than an arcade game. I'd like to have you trying to find your way to the next zone and along the way finding little vignettes about the people who were there before the apocalypse. Along with that I definitely want to add some kind of health pack collectible.
Zack HD
06. Apr 2022 · 01:43 UTC
I absolutely love the title: an incredible subversion of the early pandemic sentiment. This is giving me some serious Total Carnage vibes for some reason. I really love its arcade-y feeling and the feeling of impending doom. Game looks amazing, love the way the slime looks too. I just wish there was more to collect or do in the game, but a minor gripe honestly. Really great entry, I hope you continue with this concept.
Jungle
06. Apr 2022 · 03:19 UTC
Came from jitspoe stream. Very nice game, I like it. Lots of potential. AI co-op NPCs would be very nice here. congrats
jitspoe
06. Apr 2022 · 03:21 UTC
Fits the theme very well! Enjoyed playing this on stream.
LDJam user 93368
06. Apr 2022 · 06:59 UTC
I really like how the mold spreads and recovers after burning. If you *have to* burn mold it's basically too late :D
You created a great atmosphere with only few elements.
Theo Clarke
06. Apr 2022 · 13:25 UTC
Very cool idea and nice graphics :) Good choice of audio too. Though the gameplay lacks a bit of variety.
PSV Games Studio
06. Apr 2022 · 20:35 UTC
Very cool game, the graphics and sounds are excellent and the effect of the mold growing up is quite satisfying. My time record is 4 minutes and 19 seconds.
Applestreet Games
06. Apr 2022 · 21:14 UTC
The atmosphere is fantastic here. Loved the opening cutscene as well. I couldn't survive much longer than a minute. lol
Squerf
07. Apr 2022 · 14:34 UTC
Love the atmosphere. I ran out of juice far too quickly because I kept accidentally blowing up the canisters :laughing:
Unbugged
08. Apr 2022 · 18:43 UTC
Very good! Little unpolished, but we are short on time, for sure. I love the idea and as someone said, this screams for co-op :smile: Thanks!
ugly_robot
08. Apr 2022 · 19:45 UTC
Wow!! A top-down shooter with a cellular automata enemy?? What an ingenious idea!
And it's got rogue-like randomized levels! So cool!
Would love to see a sequel to this game, maybe with the flame propagating as cellular automata as well (a weaker one than the mold - but perhaps the flame could be be strengthened by oil - or some other such additional mechanic to deepen the gameplay)
All in all, an awesome and experimental entry - If you get the opportunity to post source code, I would love to check out the algorithms behind this.

Also the intro cinematic was very slick, loved it
Great work!
🎤 KingOfSpill
08. Apr 2022 · 21:58 UTC
@ugly-robot That's a pretty neat idea about the flamethrower, might end up kind of similar to powder toy if I go that route. As for the algorithm for the mold growth it's pretty simple, each tick (which happens about 10 times per second) every mold pixel has a 1% chance to spawn another mold pixel next to it. It's a little inefficient as it is (it's just brute forced on the CPU) so I'm hoping to move it to a compute shader if I end up adding more to the game.
Eli Delventhal
09. Apr 2022 · 06:22 UTC
Hmm wouldn't run for me on Mac OS X. Didn't appear to be an executable there, and the unix file throws a segfault.
Kylazaur
09. Apr 2022 · 10:46 UTC
This was very... different I will say, very interesting concept and executed pretty well, good job!
🎤 KingOfSpill
09. Apr 2022 · 16:07 UTC
@eli-delventhal Thanks for letting me know! I'll look into it.
Wouter52
09. Apr 2022 · 19:23 UTC
Oooh very moody! This game is executyed nicely from intro to gameplay it feels solid. I like how the fire just blasts trough the green stuff and how you can utilize the fuel cans as explosives or as refill. I, however, suck at these kinds of games. I tried several times, but could not live long enough to get to see the other stuff. Seems there is a lot to uncover. Well done
LDJam user 234769
09. Apr 2022 · 22:23 UTC
So scary omg, I couldn't play more than a few runs because I hate spooky games :laughing:
Cool experience, loved the retro intro sequence :heart:
(Oh and I really love the title)
Uraffululz
13. Apr 2022 · 16:48 UTC
Great atmosphere of isolation, just waiting for danger around every corner. Excellent horror game!
Wendel Scardua
14. Apr 2022 · 00:41 UTC
I liked the style of the intro. Also, the way the mold spreads feels very "organic", that was really good. One thing I didn't like much is that apparently the fire from the flamethrower hits the player as well (mostly because it was already hard enough for me to avoid the mold without having to worry about that)

My best time was 02:07 on the first try... Somehow every other attempt after that I died much faster 😅:

![nature-is-healing.png](///raw/bdb/1/z/4dff2.png)
Necdilzor
15. Apr 2022 · 15:20 UTC
The mold spread and killed.

Good ambience, it's a nice touch that you can shoot fuel barrels to make an explosion and kill mold.
Was a fun top-down shooter game :)
Untitled Studios
15. Apr 2022 · 15:21 UTC
I love this. Its kinda jank but it has this unplaceably awesome weird vibe which I absolutely love.
KekonDev
17. Apr 2022 · 18:25 UTC
Nice mood and a spooky atmosphere. I liked that the gameplay was pretty fast for a survival game. You can fall behind super quickly if you don't manage the mold since the flamethrower makes the fuel explode so the map can quickly become inaccessible. Being able to move the fuel added some strategy too. The only issue I had was picking up fuel when I meant to shoot because they are both on left click.
Tudvari
20. Apr 2022 · 10:51 UTC
It felt really good obliterating the mold's patches :D It was really immersive with all the darkness and the fuel hoarding to one place so I could last longer. Nice entry!